Soft-tossing is a technique for improving the handeye coordination and/or the bat speed of a softball or baseball batter. The technique is manual in that a pitcher stands to the side of the batter, typically just out of range of the batter's swing, and softly tosses the ball into the batter's strike zone. It is highly desirable to throw the ball without warning the batter in advance, so that the batter is unable to anticipate the delivery and, thus, so that the batter's ability to strike the ball truly is a function of hand-eye coordination, reflexes and bat speed. However, as will be readily appreciated, it is difficult to avoid giving advance warning when the ball is delivered manually, that is, tossed by hand.